New Book Available
"Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition"
By: Colin Bull
University of Alaska Press
ISBN: 1-889963-73-9
Price: $34.95 USD
For further information and to order the book, please go to:
http://www.uaf.edu/uapress
University of Alaska Press is pleased to announce the publication of
"Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition" by Colin
Bull.
Driven by the desire for scientific discovery and adventure, ten naive
young men ventured north to the nearly uninhabited, ice-covered island
of Spitsbergen in 1951. Scientific progress ensued, but so did
misfortunes wrought by calamitous weather, an unworthy ship, and an
entertaining but ill-informed approach to arctic survival.
"Innocents in the Arctic" chronicles this Birmingham University
expedition with an absorbing combination of wit and historical insight.
Compiled from diaries, scientific field notes, and the author's
memories, it documents an important period in polar exploration
following the social upheaval of World War II. It also brings to life
the labors of arctic travel before modern technology: the Birmingham
researchers hauled their own sledge and communicated with hand-scrawled
notes pinned to their leaky canvas tents. Despite these difficulties,
the expedition was a scientific success and helped to unravel a
geological puzzle - why were relatively recent fossils entombed within
rocks that were twice as old? The answers to this question and others
contributed to an understanding of the evolution of the North Atlantic.
The members of the Spitsbergen Expedition saw themselves as fallible and
human, and their struggles create a compelling alternative to
traditional polar heroism. Bull's realistic, insider story of scientific
adventure will appeal to polar enthusiasts, armchair historians, and
anyone who remembers what it was like to be young and daring.
Colin Bull, cook and glaciologist on the 1951 expedition to Spitsbergen,
made more than twenty-five polar expeditions during his distinguished
career as a glaciologist. (His cooking career languished.) He organized
the first all-woman scientific expedition to Antarctica and other
scientific ventures to Greenland, the Yukon, Alaska, Chile, and Peru. He
was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth II and the Antarctic
Service Medal by the U.S. government.
For further information and to order the book, please go to:
http://www.uaf.edu/uapress